Category Archives: News

Washington, D.C April 09, 2013—Open Source for America (OSFA), an organization promoting the use of open source technologies in the U.S. federal government, today announced the election of Deb Bryant and Kane McLean as co-chairs of the organization.

Bryant created the public sector program at Oregon State University’s Open Source Lab (OSUOSL) and founded and produced the annual Government Open Source Conference (GOSCON) from 2005-2011. She serves on numerous boards and councils with public trust agendas and an emphasis on open source as enabling technology.

McLean is part of the Strategy & Communications Group at BRTRC and currently works supporting the Department of Defense. He also serves on the Steering Committee of Mil-OSS, a defense-oriented public sector open source community.

McLean and Bryant issued a joint statement regarding their new roles: “We strongly believe that governments at all levels can benefit from adoption of open source in terms of the actual technology as well as the model for collaboration between various stakeholders. Open Source for America is a great platform for that message, and we are thrilled to be given the opportunity to lead that effort.”

The new co-chairs replace Gunnar Hellekson of Red Hat and John Scott of Radiant Blue. “Deb and Kane have been long-time members of our Steering Committee and have already shown tremendous dedication to Open Source for America in various leadership roles,” said Hellekson. “We couldn’t ask for two better leaders for the organization.” Scott agreed, “They apply the best principles of open source, like transparency, collaboration, and meritocracy, to everything they do. OSFA is fortunate to have them at the helm.” Hellekson and Scott will remain on the Steering Committee of the organization.

About Open Source for America
Open Source for America (OSFA) is an organization of technology industry leaders, non-government associations and academic and research institutions dedicated to advocating the use of open source software in the U.S. federal government. Participation in Open Source for America is open to any individual or entity signing the campaign’s mission pledge at: http://www.opensourceforamerica.org.

On the Health IT Buzz blog from HHS, Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s Special Assistant for Consumer e-Health, Damon Davis, visits OSCON:

…it seems that those involved in the development of open source software believe it has the potential to be a driving force in advances in personal health and wellness, the technological transformation of the health care system, and government innovations small and large. It is incumbent on those of us in the federal government to continue to strive for greater openness, transparency, and collaboration.

Working group will develop best practices for taxpayer-funded software.

Portland, Ore. – OSCON – July 19, 2012 – Open Source for America (OSFA), an organization of technology industry leaders, non-government associations, and academic and research institutions promoting the use of open source technologies in the U.S. Federal Government, today launched a petition to “Free the Code,” in an effort to encourage the government to release custom-developed, taxpayer-funded software as open source by default.

“Free the Code is an initiative to start a national conversation on taxpayer investments insoftware and information technology,” said John Scott, president of Selection Pressure, LLC and co-chair of Open Source for America’s steering committee. “Specifically, we’re interested in how publicly-funded software code developed by the government, which isn’t already covered by a proprietary license, should be made available to the wider public.”

Scott and Deb Bryant of the Open Source Initiative (OSI) co-chaired a “Free the Code” session at the Open Source Conference (OSCON) this week in Portland, Oregon to invite interested parties to join the debate. “Releasing code as open source would significantly increase reuse and collaborative development between federal agencies and the private sector,” said Bryant. “We hope that others agree and will sign our petition at We the People asking the Federal Government to share government-developed software under an open source license whenever possible.”

Free the Code is asking anyone with an interest in taxpayer-funded software to sign the petition at: http://goo.gl/K920J.The White House has pledged to respond to any petition on the We the People site that garners 25,000 signatures within 30 days.

Free the Code has launched a website to share and discuss government policies and best practices on open source software. Anyone who wishes to join the working group and develop model policies can sign up at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/freethecode.

About Open Source for America

Open Source for America (OSFA) is an organization of technology industry leaders, non-government associations and academic and research institutions dedicated to advocating the use of open source software in the U.S. Federal government. Participation in Open Source for America is open to any individual or entity signing the campaign’s mission pledge at: www.opensourceforamerica.org.